NEW JERSEY STRONG WATER DISASTERS -NJ State DEP and City of Trenton Reach Agreement on Water Infrastructure

Trenton, NJ: 2.7.2018 – The Department of Environmental Protection and the city of Trenton have reached an agreement detailing a series of steps to address infrastructure, staffing, operational and public notification needs at the Trenton Water Works, Acting DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe announced today.

“It is important that the town of Trenton and the DEP have reached an agreement for an improvement for its drinking water. Trenton’s water system has a lot of serious infrastructure water quality problem. This is not the first time the DEP and Trenton had an agreement and yet there is still a problem with their drinking water. Trenton water treatment system keeps breaking down and the treatment doesn’t always work. They are not doing anything to protect their water sources or enclose their open air reservoir They were supposed to put a cap on in it 2009 and haven’t done anything,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. Since we have an office in Trenton, we keep getting alerts from the water department that we cannot drink the water. It’s not just us getting alerts, it’s people who live in the city and children in schools.

The agreement, known as an Administrative Consent Order (ACO), establishes timeframes for the utility to bring system operations into compliance with DEP regulations by addressing staffing deficiencies, implementing an emergency response plan that will keep the public informed of operational issues, and taking actions to minimize disruptions to the treatment plant, particularly to its Delaware River intake system.

“We now have a plan in place but unless there is a funding mechanism to fix the old aging infrastructure and pipes, it will not fix the water problems. Without money the ACO is not worth the paper it is written on.Thanks to old and outdated infrastructure, we’re seeing chemical contamination in our drinking water and pipes that are leaking and falling apart. We have school children drinking lead in their water and old pipes that leak out sometimes 25% of the water going through them. This should be a wake up call to Trenton that they need to do more to protect their water and upgrade their water system, said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.